Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

No Two Cloud Solutions Are Created Equal

Today’s business executives face a plethora of choices, when shopping for a cloud-based time and attendance and yet, not all cloud solution vendors and/or their deployment methodologies are born equal. ATS TimeWork OnDemand is designed to accommodate robust data capture, adhere to ever changing workforce compliance and complexity, and is equally matched by dependable performance in the cloud.

No Two Cloud Solutions Are Created Equal

When faced with a bewildering choice of cloud-based time and attendance vendors, business executives, should look for some of the following:

Scalability
The fact that you are shopping for a cloud solution, probably means you understand there are cost savings with not having to purchase expensive Servers and yearly licenses not to the mention the cost of an IT department or person to manage said Server. So, with this in mind, the chosen solution should be nimble enough to grow with your business and, at the same time allow you to scale down if and when necessary.

Ease-Of-Use
The whole point of deploying a cloud-based time and attendance is that it should not be a burdern your HR and Payroll practitioner. In fact, it should lessen the workload with a set of easy-to-use, dashboards, broad-based capabilities and slew of analytics, at your fingertips, with a goal of improving productivity.

Deployment
Unlike traditional on-premise time and attendance takes time and requires a great deal of planning but ATS TimeWork OnDemand offers significant advantages when you consider its speed of deployment. Since ATS TimeWork requires no additional hardware, this means there is no need to install an IT infrastructure and/or apply Server updates and buy expensive licenses.

Bottom-line, every business is unique, even those that are in the same industry so taking the time to consider the differences in time and attendance cloud solutions and, the options they each one offers will affect your company’s decision. To learn more ATS TimeWork OnDemand and our deployment methodologies, contact us.

To download ATS TimeWork OnDemand demonstration, go to our website. You can also register for one of our bi-weekly webinars.

HR, Payroll, Time and Attendance

Don’t Think A Healthy Compensation Will Retain Good Talent? Think Again

June 23rd, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Benefit Accruals | Employee Scheduling | Overtime | TimeWork - (Comments Off)

It has been said that the financial crisis of 2008 has been used, by some companies to keep wages low. Some of have compared the 2008 financial crisis to the depression of the 1930s as being the same or worse. And, while the economy has somewhat gotten better, many workers are still fighting to get a decent wage. The companies who consistently choose to pay employees low wages are, for the most part, out of touch with reality and, the protests in the streets over the years, is an indication of how strongly many of these low-wage earners feel.

The issue of stagnant pay increase is also an issue for middle managers and an article by Christie Hunter Arscott for Harvard Business Review says as much. The title of the article “Why So Many Thirtysomething Women Are Leaving Your Company” focuses on the reasons why men and women alike leave a company. And, when you sift through the reasons, it pretty much boils down to regardless of the title we hold and whether it’s a man or a woman, everybody wants to be paid a decent wage, one that he/she is able to survive on.

Here are 3 tips from Christie Hunter Arscott article that companies can use to assess the wage structure as it pertains to its employees:

“Ask, don’t assume: Women in their thirties should play an integral role in developing talent retention strategies. Instead of talking about them, talk with them. Want to know why women are leaving your organization? Don’t assume. Ask them and then develop data-driven strategies based on these findings.

Address challenges beyond family and flexibility: While options for flexibility and work-life balance are important, the bottom line is that motherhood is not the primary reason why talented women are leaving organizations.

Propose women’s strategies as broader talent strategies: Gender appears to have little impact on an individual’s reasons for leaving an organization. This is good news for organizational leaders. There is less of a need to segment and complicate talent strategies by gender. Instead, there is the opportunity to create broad impact through strategies that address the desires of both mid-career women and men.”

Don’t Think A Healthy Compensation Will Retain Good Talent? Think Again

In conclusion, choosing to pay employees at the bottom-end of the scale will only lead to them leaving your company. And because the job market is tight, it’s very likely that the vacation position can be fill very quickly. However, sooner or later, companies who are known to have a high turnover rate, because of excessively low pay, will be avoided, even by those who are desperate for work. The good news is that the companies who pay their employees the poverty wages are in the minority-so, there is hope.

Employees, Harvard Business Review, Wages

We Do Not Use Or Believe In The Cloud, So What?

Saying your company does not believe in the cloud or even plan to use it is likely hard to believe as the dominance of cloud-based applications are showing no signs of abating. Some companies have dedicated IT teams and servers on which they can store their own data, foregoing the need to use cloud-base solutions and in the short term, this will work. However, there will come a time when these companies will have to upgrade their servers and apply software patches and this will inevitably become cost prohibitive-even for companies with large IT budgets. Businesses and their shareholders are interested in streamlining costs and increasing workforce productivity and since the cloud provides that, more businesses are choosing not to buy new servers, and instead, deploy cloud-based applications.

David Goldman of CNN business wrote an article titled “What is the cloud?” and states in part; “You can run from the cloud — but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hide. Your job might require you to log onto cloud-based software. Microsoft’s next version of Windows is expected to run some features of its operating system in the cloud.”

So, can your company reap some benefits if we decide to move our current, employee timesheet to the cloud? Yes, you can! ATS TimeWork OnDemand is a robust cloud-based time and attendance solution that provides companies with a unique advantage while addressing employee time capture through an integrated, intuitive, flexible and comprehensive workforce management solution.

The article by David Goldman goes on to say “Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook are among the biggest data center operators for consumer cloud services. There are 320 million iCloud users. Facebook users have uploaded more than 400 billion photos and add an average 350 million a day. Amazon’s cloud services operate in 190 countries around the world.”

In closing, there are lots of benefits to migrating your time and attendance to the cloud, while at the same time maximizing the value of your company’s most important resource, its workforce. In addition, as your organization grows, you need a cost-effective, flexible solution that will grow with you. And, that’s where a cloud-based solution like ATS TimeWork OnDemand, comes in handy.

To download a return on investment (ROI) calculator or to attendance one of our monthly webinars, go to our website.

Amazon, ATS TimeWork OnDemand, Facebook, iCloud, Microsoft, Time and Attendance

How Businesses Can Streamline Costs And Increase Workforce Productivity

Streamlining costs and increasing workforce productivity are golden words to CEOs, shareholders and other senior executives. And, in an era of market fluctuations and shrinking profits, chief decision makers need effective tools, to help them meet the demands of today’s face-paced business landscape.

In an article titled “Want To Reduce Business Costs? Here Are 10 Areas To Start With”
by Michael Evans on forbes.com it reads in part;

“One way to avoid this situation is to reduce and control non-strategic costs. Through technology and the emergence of the outsourcing industry, companies can reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and increase profits to be in a better position to deal with the inevitable cyclical economic downturn.”

We chose 5 of out of the 10 that’s listed in the article:

Manufacturing
“The economics have changed substantially between producing goods in China and in the United States. A recent study indicated that offshore manufacturing companies are looking at a 15 to 20 percent average wage increases and will reach wage parity with the United States by 2017. Energy costs outside the country are growing quickly as conversions from coal to natural gas are implemented in China.

Finance and Accounting
The cloud simplifies outsourcing of accounting and makes cost reductions easier and to achieve. This makes a lot of sense if you are having to scale up, or if you do not have accountants on staff to improve reporting or make sure you are GAAP compliant.

Human Resources
A Professional Employee Organization (PEO) can help process your payroll and offer your employees a better offering of benefits. In addition, by pooling with other companies through a PEO, you can get significant pooling discounts on the cost of benefits.

Social Marketing
Your website, social networking, and LinkedIn usage can save you enormous sums for marketing your company. Look at the outbound marketing costs and see what you can substitute.

Selling to the right customer
Smart firms will not only rid themselves of loss-making customers but, by mapping the on-boarding sales prospect process, incorporate activities and incentives for salespeople to bring only profit-producing customers on board. Whether you are reducing the selling cost or diverting resources to attain more profitable sales, you are moving to increase the cash and the profitability of the firm.”

To read the article in its entirety, go to forbes.com. Reducing business costs is not rocket science if the right approach is taken; for example, ATS workforce management solution provides proven, comprehensive time and attendance capabilities which take your company beyond manual time sheets or antiquated punch clocks. And, with ATS TimeWork OnDemand you can streamline key business processes and gain the real-time visibility and efficiency you need to run, grow your business and, at the same time, streamline costs.

To learn more, you can register for our webinar “How To Use Time And Attendance Effectively With Big Data” on Friday, August 14th at 1:00pm eastern. To download a demonstration, go to our website, and, to reach us by phone call; 1.866.294.2467.

Human Resources, LinkedIn, Manufacturing, Punch Clocks, Time and Attendance

Daylight Savings Time|Beneficial Or Costly?

March 10th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Solution | TimeWork | Workforce Management Solutions - (Comments Off)

The Internet was flooded with the havoc daylight savings time have on our health and sleep patterns. And this is nothing new,-twice a year we go through this ritual of turning our clocks forward in the spring and turning it back in the fall, and many of us dislike it and yet despite widespread distaste it prevails each year. Change takes time and some of us who are millennials today, will probably be lawmakers in a few years and might seek to pass laws to abolish this outdated tradition known as daylight savings time. Then again, we may not want to change it at all when we reach the bowels of power and can affect change.

In the meantime, here is a sample of some very persuasive arguments about the need to abolish daylight saving time:

Richard Feloni from Business Insider
“Health risk and the danger of losing sleep: Insufficient sleep negatively affects an individual’s short-term memory, motor skills, risk management, moral judgment, and productivity. So imagine nearly an entire workforce operating at that level for a day — that’s the Monday after the switch to Daylight Saving Time, argues Christopher M. Barnes, assistant professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

In a 2009 study Barnes and David T. Wagner took a look at mining industry data provided by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. From the years 1983 to 2006, they looked at 576,292 injuries. Barnes and Wagner found that there were 3.6 injuries more than average on Sleepy Monday, up 5.7%. And these injuries had a real impact on business, resulting in a 67.6% increase in days lost from the average injury.”

Shawn Gordon on SmartData Collective:
“Productivity: What it does have is a deleterious effect on public health and safety. A negative impact on kids performance in school, as many studies show that kids do better in school by starting later in the day and DST is contrary to that. Massive hidden costs and dangers in adjusting delicate computer software systems. Modern life does not require DST. Our lighting energy costs are trivial compared to our other usage like computers and TV’s. Flexible work arrangements and a global economy make shift work mostly a thing of the past. It’s time to move to the 21st Century and drop this anachronistic legislative holdover that was developed by arrogant and self serving men. Write your Sentators and your Representatives and let them know what you think.”

And this title in the Independent written by Payton Guion, might make you sit up straight “Daylight saving time: Why moving the clock forward increases risk of heart attacks”

And a paragraph from the article reads, in part; “A study done by Dr Amneet Sandhu, a cardiology fellow at the University of Colorado in Denver, shows that on the Monday immediately after daylight saving time heart attacks increase by 25 per cent, Reuters reported. On the Monday after daylight saving time ends, heart attacks fall by 21 per cent. Dr Sandhu said the loss of sleep is the likely culprit of the increase of heart attacks seen after the clocks move forward, so make sure you get plenty of sleep on Sunday.”

Soon it will be spring and then the lazy days of summer, barbeques and roadtrips will be upon us. Chances are, many of us will forget the furor of daylight savings time until the fall. That’s when the clocks moves back an hour.

Clock, Daylight Saving Time, Denver

Say Good-Bye To Stone-Age Software And Headaches

In the mid 1990s, older generation time and attendance software applications served a purpose in many industries, and were popular with mid-sized and large companies. Implementation process involved installing a database on a single computer, usually that of the main user and keeping that PC on all night so, it could poll data from the time clocks. Data integration and on-going application maintenance in such environments was nothing short of a nightmare. Fast forward to the 20^th century and, today’s growing enterprises have subsidiaries in many corners of the globe and need a solution that has real-time visibility across key business metrics and, need to optimize business operations.

If your company is one of the few still using an older software you are likely wasting money on a solution that is not meeting your needs and the chances of it improving is like wishing on a a star.

Say Good-Bye To Stone-Age Software And Headaches

The companies that have migrated from an outdated system to ATS time and attendance application enjoy:

Business Intelligence
Real-time business analytics propels ATS TimeWork dashboard and users of the system, have easy access to reports and key performance indicators (KPIs). On-the-spot time and attendance data is analyzed and displayed from within the system.

Built-in Flexibility
As your business requirements changes, your time and attendance will keep pace. Upi can adopt new modules, and the flexibility of ATS TimeWork lets you do it all, quickly and easily. Updates are built with the data configuration from the start and forms a migration that is seamless and to your specification. Are you ready to move away from your old system yet?

Built-ready for today’s growing companies
Mobile-enabled, cloud-based and loaded with features including; Geofencing, employee scheduling, job costing, benefit accruals and overtime equalization. ATS time and attendance enable growing companies to immediately address the most pressing challenges –attendance, payroll costs and productivity across business metrics that is essential to managing growth in a dynamic business environment.

So, should you keep plugging away with your current time and attendance system, or is it time to explore a new solution? To learn more go to our website, you can also download a demonstration.

GeoFencing, Key Performance Indicators, Payroll, PC, Time and Attendance

Give The People What They Want, Not Stress By Too Much Paperwork

February 17th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | TimeWork | Workforce Analytics | Workforce Scheduling Software - (Comments Off)

It’s fair to say most businesses have the same objective: remain profitable, efficient, and streamline operational cost. Depending on corporate culture and organizational priorities these goals may differ in order slightly. Regardless of the order in which these priorities rank, ATS time and attendance advanced technology ensures that employee data is captured in real-time with accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness.

So an executive, if your company’s Payroll, HR Department, Plant Manager and Financial Controller are complaining about the amount of time, effort and paperwork involved in getting you accurate information-consider the following if you automate:

Comprehensive data capture: With an array of employee time clocks to choose from, you can say good-bye to those manual pesky timesheets that cost your company thousands of dollars each year in human error.

Powerful analytics: Just imagine no longer have to guess the correct number of employees needed to cover a shift, or the best worker to fill an open one? With ATS forecasting and workforce analytics tool, you can now remove the guessing out of the equation. Instead, you will now have at your fingertips, real-time data, for actionable insights.

Seamless integration: That means no more keying data into excel spreadsheets, ERP, payroll and HR systems. With ATS time and attendance you can now connect quickly to other applications.

Deployment to success: ATS professional service team will help you plan and manage your ATS TimeWork time and attendance deployment and will we will strive to help you understand all of the support options and tools that are available. We will also continue to provide needed services throughout the life of your relationship with ATS.

Innovative solution: Cloud-delivered ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance provides yearly enhancements at no additional cost or disruption.

So how do you automate your current manual process or changed from the current system that’s not meeting your needs? That’s easy, we can help you launch that strategy – and help ensure that you reap the benefits, of a workforce management solution, quickly and cost-effectively.

To learn more, download a demonstration or, if you prefer, one of our account executives can contact you by phone.

Forecasting, HR, Time and Attendance

Want Agile, Powerful And Robust? That’s ATS Workforce Management Solution

If you are in the market for a time and attendance system, but are unsure which solution will best meet your business requirements, having access to a live demonstration of the actual application could aid in the decision making process.

ATS TimeWork time and attendance is quick to implement and is a best-in-class workforce management (WFM) software that helps companies, throughout Canada and the U.S. manage their; time tracking, pay policies, stat holiday calculation, job costing, benefit accruals and helps decrease company-wide payroll costs. The solution was designed for industries of all types and helps you work and grow efficiently.

With ATS TimeWork, companies can access up-to-the-minute workforce analytic tools to support their business growth and help them act with agility and proper insight. Beyond the traditional workforce management system, ATS offers a unified solution that improves efficiency and effectiveness throughout an organization.

With ATS TimeWork Time and Attendance, you can:

Automate time and attendance processes to reduce payroll costs, comply with collective bargaining agreements and government regulations.
Enhance and monitor workforce performance in real time, with employee time clocks and spot attendance problems early and avoid labour violations through analytic reporting tools.
Eliminate costs and errors and move from paper time sheets to automated budgeting tools that helps propel and automate the planning cycle.

Want to learn more? You can go to our website and sign up for one of our monthly webcasts. You can also reach us by phone at 866.294.2467.

Employee Time Clocks, Time and Attendance, Workforce Analytics

Anatomy of an Ideal Workforce Management Solution: Just Keep It Simple

The key to an employee attendance solution should be one borne out of simplicity and flexibility. At the heart of the product should be its ability to track attendance. To some companies, all that matters are the “bells and whistles”. However, being able to activate different modules within your system and its ability to manage your company core requirements should be top of mind.ATS Time & Attendance helps mid and large organizations automate attendance by replacing manual time sheets.

Solution Benefits to an ATS Time and Attendance includes:

Flexibilibity
ATS time and attendance is offered as both cloud-based an on-premises powered by a robust platform with a plethora of modules designed to grow with your business. ATS time and attendance is rapid to implement, adaptable to your business’ needs and simple to use. ATS time and attendance On-Premises application uses industry best practices and business intelligence process flows designed to help accelerate the deployment of the solution. ATS deployment strategies help to dramatically shorten the learning curve for both administrative and operational users.

Simplicity at its core
ATS employs a consistent implementation methodology complete, with project roadmaps all designed to stay on time and on budget. Replacing paper timesheets with an ATS solution allows you to leverage your time and attendance data to enhance the productivity of your workforce.

Solution designed for the needs of different industries

ATS time and attendance integrates to third-party applications and, at the same time streamlines business processes to include; job costing, scheduling, overtime, holiday calculations and time-off requests—within one single software system.

ATS delivers workforce management software process efficiency across a variety of verticals, complemented by the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our next-generation time and attendance software will help you optimize business performance across your entire enterprise.

To test drive ATS TimeWork On-Demand, go to our website. You can also follow us on Google Plus, LinkedIn or Twitter. You can also register for our live and informative webinar“Maximize Business Value with a Workforce Management Software” on April 25^th.

Anatomy of an Ideal Workforce Management Solution, Just Keep It Simple

Job Costing, Overtime, Scheduling, Time and Attendance, Workforce Management Software

5 Key Elements for a Successful Implementation

April 1st, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Software | TimeWork | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off)

Some time and attendance projects turn out to be more costly than foreseen because, they may take longer than anticipated or a company might opt for the cheapest solution-but end up paying more for things that were missed in the first place. There is also element of a company’s business requirements not being fulfilled. With this in mind, businesses should inform themselves of the factors contributing to successful employee time and attendance implementation.

While the list below is by no means exhaustive, it can serve as a benchmark for companies thinking about deploying an ATS time and attendance solution. An ATS project lead, will perform an analysis of your organization’s current and future business requirements and compare them to existing software capabilities of ATS workforce management solution.

Solution Benefits of an ATS Deployment:

Preparation
The purpose of this phase is to provide initial planning and preparation for implementation. This includes technical issues as well as project management topics and expected commitment from your organization in terms of time and resources.

Solution Roadmap
A preliminary workshop provides the opportunity to fine-tune the original project and related objectives. The result is the solution roadmap, which documents in detail the results gathered during the data gathering requirements phase.

Project Actuality
The goal in this phase is to configure the business requirements and test against the information gathered during the preparation kick-off meeting. The ATS implementation analyst will validate and update the time and attendance configuration while the company’s project lead updates the work instructions.

Deployment and Training
The activities during this phase will focus on providing the customer with the tools for going live on preparing both the software and the customer for going live. In addition, we will ensure that the customer project leader and department managers are sufficiently trained on the use of TimeWork On-Demand. Conclusion of the system analysis will encompass time and attendance system tests, adjust pay policies as required and ensure all remaining critical open issues are resolved.

Go-Live
This phase is when your organization goes live with the software and starts analyzing employee punches that are update from the time clock. Go live, can be a stressful time if the project is not properly managed. At this point of the project cycle, a strong knowledge of the system functionality and the ability to quickly react to the unexpected is critical. Shortly thereafter, a review and optimization conference is scheduled and conducted.

ATS implementation methodology brings many benefits to customers. It provides customers with a clear understanding of the scope, structure, and duration of implementing ATS TimeWork On-Demand at the outset of the project to eliminate surprises and overruns in time or budget. In addition, ATS will provide best-practice implementation services based on our years of experience.

To learn more, join one of our webinars in the month of April, May or June, and to download a demonstration of ATS Time and Attendance solution, go to our website.

5 Key Elements for a Successful Implementation

Implementation, Time and Attendance, TimeWork On-Demand

No Two Cloud Solutions Are Created Equal

Don’t Think A Healthy Compensation Will Retain Good Talent? Think Again

We Do Not Use Or Believe In The Cloud, So What?

How Businesses Can Streamline Costs And Increase Workforce Productivity

Daylight Savings Time|Beneficial Or Costly?

Say Good-Bye To Stone-Age Software And Headaches

Give The People What They Want, Not Stress By Too Much Paperwork

Want Agile, Powerful And Robust? That’s ATS Workforce Management Solution

Anatomy of an Ideal Workforce Management Solution: Just Keep It Simple

5 Key Elements for a Successful Implementation

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta